1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic printer, particularly to a photographic printer which enables the changeover from the disc film printing operation to the cut film printing operation, and vice versa, and more particularly to a photographic printer having a supply section, a transport section and a printing section, which, in the printing operations of 135-size roll films, cut films and photographic disc films, are interchangeably used.
Inter alia, with the photographic disc films, the present invention relates to a photographic printer which allows sequentially taking photographic disc films out of the holder section thereof for the photographic printing operation.
Inter alia, with the 135-size roll films, the present invention relates to a photographic printer having a transport section for common use in the transport of roll films and of cut films.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally speaking, to photo service bureaus or photofinishers there are usually brought in mixedly concurrent printmaking with film development-mostly required roll films, additional prints-mostly desired cut films, and disc films for disc camera use.
Conventional photographic printers include those exclusive roll film printers having roll film supply and take-up sections and an automatic transport unit, those exclusive cut film printers having an automatic cut film transport unit, and those exclusive disc film printers having an automatic transport unit to transport disc films for disc camera use, which were separately prepared for the printing of photographic printing papers from the developed roll films, cut films, and disc films, respectively. For this reason, any photofinishing service bureau needed a large area for the installation of exclusive photographic printers, which, in some cases, made it difficult to carry highly productive photofinishing services due to many inconveniences, and therefore there has been desired some improvement on this problem.
The negative roll film printing, because of the designation of either concurrent printing with film development or same size printing performed by an automatic negative film judgement process provided prior to the photographic paper printing process, can be rapidly and efficiently carried out, but the printing of cut film negative requires the input of necessary information for the designation of individual frames to be printed, of the quantity of prints to be made, and of others necessary for the printing operation process, which causes the operation time to become elongated, and therefore the effective use of high-performance photographic printers has been desired. Further, for disc film for disc camera use, because disc film for disc camera use is different from long 135-size film, the transport mechanism for disc film is also different, so that in the case where the printing of films of both types mixedly present should be performed, the handling of those printer's components exclusively prepared for the 135-size film printing process and the handling of those exclusively prepared for the disc film printing process become complicated, so that there have so far often appeared such a trouble that the efficiency of the 135-size film printing operation is lowered, thus leading to the deterioration of the photofinishing service quality.
Generally speaking, in the printing process performed by photofinishers, disc negative films and 135-size negative films are mixedly handled. In the case of making prints from negative films by a printer, in the printing exposure process, an exclusive printer must be used for the negative film to be printed. Where disc negative films and 135-size negative films are to be printed by one printer, as in the case of projection lenses, the negative film masks also must be used changing from the disc negative film mask to the 135-size negative film mask, and vice versa. Also in the 135-size negative film, there must be made the interchange of the negative masks as well as of the projection lenses according to the full size or half size of 135-size images. Although the negative film mask for the full size is allowed to be applied to the printing of half-size images, the use of it deteriorates the printed image quality because the flatness of the negative film is not secured. For disc negative films it is particularly essential to secure the flatness of the negative film because of the larger magnification in enlarging the film image. For this reason, there have been the disadvantage that every time when one film size is changed to another, the readjustment of lens focussing, and the like must be made, thus complicating the operation in the printing exposure process, leading to the lowering of the operation efficiency.
There has been another disadvantage that the mixedly handling of disc negative films with different other films tends to cause the delay of the 135-size film service operation, making it difficult to improve the photographic print-finish service.
A further disadvantage also exists which is such that every time when the lens change and negative film change are made with a photographic printing paper staying in a given position, correct adjustment of the lens focussing as well as of the exposure must be made, and also there are required a semiautomatic operation process for the measurement of the transmission light from different-size negative films, and the readjustments of the chromatic quality of the light from the exposure light source and of the exposure time into appropriate ranges, and for this reason a LATD measurement unit is arranged in the negative film printing position, but this arrangement produces such an unfavorable condition that because in the case of such a short-focus lens as the disc film lens, the distance between the negative film and the lens is extremely small, for example, in the case of the automatic disc film lens-to-other lens interchangeable mechanism, there occurs an interference between the photometer unit and the lens unit.
Also taking the case of photographic disc films, conventional photographic printers for photographic disc films have not less than two spindles for photographic disc film use in the film supply section thereof, the sprindles being provided thereon with a plurality of photographic disc films stacked up during the printing operation.
Therefore, the supply of photographic disc films is made by taking one by one off the spindle from the bottom of the stack. The photographic disc films that have been subjected to printing exposures are stacked by putting them one by one on another spindle arranged in a different position than the original supply position from the upside thereof thus to be held in the take-up section.
For this reason, conventional photographic printers require two same-type spindles, one in the supply section and the other in the take-up section, and also require the holding sections therefor, thus leading to the increase in the area for the installation of the photographic printer.
Further, in such spindles there is the disadvantage that there is a case where the stacking order of photographic disc films in supplying becomes reverse to that in receiving depending on whether disc films are stacked in order from the upside or from the downside, which may, in order to reverse the order, require again an operation of transferring the printing exposure-completed photographic disc films from the spindle provided therefor to another arranged for the purpose of reversing the order, thus leading to the repetition over several times of transferring of photographic disc films from spindle to spindle during the process of from film development to the time of shipment, and tending to produce some errors in the operation of, e.g., printing a large number of photographic disc films, thereby complicating the arrangement of photographic disc films by lot.
There is also another disadvantage that if a trouble occurred in the printing exposure process under the condition of the two spindles each having a disc film stack, the accomplishment of the orderly arrangement of disc films without fail takes a lot of time because of the need for coping with the trouble.
Taking the case of 135-size films, conventional photographic printers include those roll film printers having both roll film supply section and an automatic transport unit and those cut film printers having a cut film transport unit. These roll film printers and cut film printers were separately arranged for making prints from developed roll film negatives and from cut film negatives, respectively. For this reason, any photofinishing bureau needed a large area for the installation of photographic printers, which, in some cases, made it difficult to carry out highly productive photofinishing services due to many inconveniences, and therefore there has been desired some improvement on this problem.
In the case of the printing of roll film negatives, by providing an automatic negative's judgement process prior to the photographic printing paper printing process, the designation of concurrent printing or same size printing is made, whereby a rapid and efficient printing operation is carried out, but in the printing of cut film negatives, even if a negative's automatic judgement process were provided, there would be required a long preparation time prior to the printing process due to the input of necessary information for the designation of frames to be printed, of the quantity of prints to be made, and of others required in the printing operation line, thus causing the operation time to become elongated, resulting in the imbalance with the operation time of the roll film printer. For this reason, there has been desired the development of a photographic printer capable of solving these problems and having a high performance.